Sen. Olympia Snowe should be congratulated for standing firm against an economic stimulus package pushed by President Bush and a majority of GOP senators.

She was one of three Republican senators who voted against the Senate Jobs and Growth package because of a dividend tax cut provision that she terms “risky and highly speculative.”

We applaud her resolve and wish it were more widespread.

The plan calls for the elimination of taxes on corporate dividends over a four-year period, and then the taxes would reappear. The premise is that by freeing dividends from taxes, companies would have more capital to invest in growth and jobs. The measure is projected to cost $124 billion.

But Snowe’s concern is that the bill phases in long-term changes on how capital is raised in America, and then revokes those changes just as they would begin to have an effect.

“This is a risky, highly speculative and ill-conceived approach that will cause uncertainty for investors, businesses and financial markets,” she said.

Moreover, there is concern that Congress would not allow the tax cut to be phased out, meaning the true cost of the plan could exceed $660 billion over a 10-year period, according to one study.

The bill drew criticism, even from Republican backers such as Kevin Hassett, an American Enterprise Institute economist with close ties to the administration who called the Senate plan “one of the most patently absurd tax policies ever proposed.”

Hassett said the impact would be to chill dividends for the next two years, and ultimately harm the very economy it’s trying to help.

But there was enough political pressure and other perks to survive the Senate debate. Among the amendments to survive was one submitted by Sen. Susan Collins that earmarks $20 billion to rural states for fiscal relief, primarily through increased Medicaid funding.

While that will come as good news to Mainers – especially at a time when health care reform is monopolizing Augusta lawmakers’ time – it isn’t enough of a reason to endorse an economic stimulus plan that is bad policy founded on faulty logic.


Honor students


Congratulations to Edward Little students for achieving a notable academic milestone: the greatest number of honor students in at least the last 25 years at the school.

On Thursday night, EL administrators, surrounded by hundreds of proud parents and students, paid tribute to 247 students who achieved “high honors” or “highest honors” for the academic year.

Even better, school officials said a greater portion of those students earned the “highest honors” distinction.

As each name was called, student after student went to the podium to pick up a certificate and a token of their hard work and accomplishment.

In the midst of parental concerns over drugs and alcohol, sex and lousy entertainment role models, in the midst of educators’ concerns over constantly changing measures of success and how to meet them, the news that more kids are reaching higher than ever academically is a breath of clean spring air.
[email protected]